Synchronizing Email Across Several Computers
My office staff regularly work on more than one computer, in different locations (at the office, at their home, and while traveling) and most of them keep track of their work life through their email inbox and received email folders, combined with their outgoing email folder. Several have asked whether it is possible to synchronize these in/outboxes across all of their devices and associated email client programs.
Our email is handled through a POP mail server with limited storage, so it is necessary to periodically delete email off that server to keep within the storage limits, and when an email is sent out from one device, it does not show up in the outbox of the same client program on another device.
While IMAP seems like the obvious solution, I know from experience that outgoing email is not preserved across devices even in a Microsoft Exchange environment, and it is the outgoing mail that tends to be most important for keeping track of ongoing projects.
Upshot: I am hoping there is some kind of synchronization software that will act like Dropbox in keeping incoming and outgoing emails up to date and identical across multiple computers. I am leery of locating client email program data files in Dropbox, however, since I know from experience that when more than one computer is accessing such files, Dropbox cannot keep ahead of the changes and ends up having to create 'conflicted' copies identified by the name of the device, and if changes are later made to both the original and the conflicted copies, there is not straightforward way to incorporate what is different in each into a single file. I would prefer a program that synchronizes at night, on (preferably automated) demand, the way a program like FileSync does, looking for new files and folders and copying to all devices while preserving the date stamps of each new or recently-altered file.
Maybe this is not possible, but any advice is most appreciated.
Our email is handled through a POP mail server with limited storage, so it is necessary to periodically delete email off that server to keep within the storage limits, and when an email is sent out from one device, it does not show up in the outbox of the same client program on another device.
While IMAP seems like the obvious solution, I know from experience that outgoing email is not preserved across devices even in a Microsoft Exchange environment, and it is the outgoing mail that tends to be most important for keeping track of ongoing projects.
Upshot: I am hoping there is some kind of synchronization software that will act like Dropbox in keeping incoming and outgoing emails up to date and identical across multiple computers. I am leery of locating client email program data files in Dropbox, however, since I know from experience that when more than one computer is accessing such files, Dropbox cannot keep ahead of the changes and ends up having to create 'conflicted' copies identified by the name of the device, and if changes are later made to both the original and the conflicted copies, there is not straightforward way to incorporate what is different in each into a single file. I would prefer a program that synchronizes at night, on (preferably automated) demand, the way a program like FileSync does, looking for new files and folders and copying to all devices while preserving the date stamps of each new or recently-altered file.
Maybe this is not possible, but any advice is most appreciated.
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